Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to investigate sepsis

By diagnosing infections in a simple and effective way many human lives can be saved. Mats Nilsson, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Stockholm University/SciLifeLab, and his research group have now been granted more than 1 million SEK by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a method for examination of children with sepsis.

Blood-poisoning, sepsis, is a life threatening state that can be induced when the immune system reacts to an infection in a way that harms body organs and cells. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 6 million people die from sepsis globally every year, most of them in low- or middle-income countries.

“In parts of the world where the infant mortality is high the cause of death is often unknown. It is probably caused by an infection but which one is not investigated in most cases. Without this knowledge it is hard to reduce infant mortality caused by infection. The aim of our project is to investigate if a method that we have developed can be used in large scale to test samples that have been collected in simple settings and in a cost effective way.” Says Mats Nilsson.